A Sad, Fun Weekend

We moved my mom out of her house this weekend, which was kind of sad.  But it was made infinitely less sad by the presence of my sister and her family.  Ginny and I laughed as we unloaded box after box of kitchen supplies and discovered lost memories of my dad in each one.  Take these crab claw crackers (or whatever they are actually called).  To anyone else, you might see these and think, “Crab.”  Duh.  But my sister and I saw them and remembered my dad cracking pecans with them and eating them by the bag full when we lived in Atlanta growing up.  And then we laughed because of how many of them we found in the drawer.  I think our total count was eight of them.  All identical.  Each of us kept two, and they will be happy reminders for us.

But it wasn’t all about my dad this weekend.  We found all kinds of treasures from our childhoods and my mom’s.  Like this rocking horse.  My great-grandfather gave it to my grandma when my mom was born.  Mom said she can remember getting in trouble for rocking it so hard that it’s nose and hind legs would touch the ground going each way.  Ginny and I remember getting in trouble for doing the same thing when we were growing up.  And it was sweet to see both of our kids rocking on it this weekend.

We spent the weekend mostly working, but in between boxes, me and Gracie Girl snuck in cuddles with Ginny and John Michael’s kids, Faith and Tillman.

These two are growing up faster than my own kids, it seems!  Every time I see them, they are huge! And so stinking funny!  Both of them!

At one point, Faith was into just about everything and so we put her in baby jail for a while so we could get some things done. I threw in some Mardi Gras beads to entertain her (don’t worry, she was right next to me the whole time…) and within five minutes, she had every single one of them around her neck and was signing to me, “More! More!”

And, of course, if you confine one, then this happens…

And when that happens, you’re never far away from this happening…

Bean was camping with a friend this weekend and Chris was working, so it was just me and Gracie helping move. I think Gracie kind of liked being the oldest one around for a change. And it gave her and Tillman a chance to play together, since normally, Bean and Tillman are joined at the hip during their visits.

Both Gracie and Tillman were (and still are to a certain extent) “spirited children.” Both were strong-willed, stubborn, and a gave their parents premature gray hairs. But Little Miss Faithy? Methinks she will take the cake in our family on the spirited child title.

But who cares when you’re this cute?

Also, if you’re wondering where all the pictures of the boys are, all of those pictures were blurry!  Boys are a blur with dirt on them.

On Sunday afternoon, everyone came down to my house to swim, grill out, and spend the night. By this time, Beanie was home from his camping trip and that gave him some time with family.

That also meant we never saw the children again that day. They were in heaven playing together.

So, the sadness came and went, while being surrounded by family to hug, babies to love, and laughs to share. And I’m pretty sure that’s just how my dad would have wanted it to be.